Pardee's Green Building Means More Than Lower Fuel Bills at Award-Winning LivingSmart Homes at Fair Oaks Ranch

    SANTA BARBARA, CA, November 19, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- When people think of green building, LEED often pops to mind, which is only natural for one of the nation's first green building standards. Like many "firsts," it has brand value, especially for the commercial and institutional buildings it was originally designed to evaluate.

Now, make friends with the National Green Building Standard (NGBS), which may be a better fit for evaluating your new home purchase and your homebuilder's green program. NGBS relates directly to residential design, building, materials and systems. It is the only residential green rating system approved by the American National Standards Institute.

Also of note is that a homebuilder seeking NGBS ranking cannot achieve it by clustering ratings points in just one area, such as energy or water savings. While such savings are undeniably key to the green-built equation, NGBS requires a cumulative score because it is a comprehensive standard.

An NGBS ranking reflects such additional considerations as the builder's use of recycled and renewable materials, indoor air quality, buyer education on their new home's green features, and more. So with a highly rated NGBS home, you can anticipate much more than utility savings. You will also know that your home's carbon footprint is commendably low and that you have the information you need to keep your new, high-performance, low-maintenance home operating as intended.

Then add the ease of situating your family close to what also matters everyday: jobs, shopping, services, schools, recreation and dining--your life. In rating a community's sustainability, NGBS notes such advantages, and checks on the opportunities to walk, drive a short distance or hop onto Metrolink to get to them.

As rated by NGBS, a truly green home thus offers a measuring stick for perhaps the most valuable non-renewable resource of all time.

Pardee Homes' latest green designs offer a perfect example of what NGBS Gold certification can mean to you after move-in. LivingSmart Homes is part of Pardee's master-planned community of Fair Oaks Ranch in Los Angeles County. Priced from the low $400,000s, its designs offer approximately 1,846 to 2,432 square feet of living space in stylish, versatile layouts. Solar power systems are among some 30 included green features that save on consumption of energy, water and other resources, and enhance indoor air quality and comfort.

This union of style with green building helped earn the homes Green Community of the Year/Suburban in the 2011 So Cal Awards. The judges also noted the high-value, sustainable location in their scoring.

Within the community, residents access the K-6 Fair Oaks Ranch Community School and its playgrounds and sports fields; a hiking and walking trail, Fair Oaks Ranch Park, hundreds of acres of open space with preserved oak trees and a private, resort-style recreation center.

Residents find convenient connections to Metrolink, freeways, diverse shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities and to everyday services. Surrounding state and regional parks, preserves and recreational facilities enrich leisure time choices without adding a trek.

"NGBS exemplifies the goal we set in 1998 with our first energy-saving homes, which was to deliver higher green value in a new home while keeping our eyes on that new home's price," said Joyce Mason, vice president of marketing for Pardee Homes and a Certified Green Professional. "As a 'real-world' standard for buyers and builders today, NGBS is a great fit with our LivingSmart brand, and we're delighted to deliver it at the Gold level here in Fair Oaks Ranch."

Pardee Homes embraced NGBS after painstaking research of the multitude of programs, products and systems that populate today's green-building picture. "We have earned our green credentials by learning, doing and learning more," said Mason. "With NGBS, we strengthen this commitment, and that adds to buyer confidence in our green program."

Website: http://www.pardeehomes.com

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